It’s finally here.
John R. Miller just dropped his long-awaited album, Depreciated, and it’s everything I was hoping it would be. Gritty, folksy, full of pain and the wisdom that comes from it.
And one of the songs that immediately got my attention was the last track on the album, “Fire Dancer” – which was inspired by the time he accidentally smoked DMT, and the clarity he got from the experience.
“There were nights with wiser spirits
Spent gathered around the fire
Searching for some meaning
Finding comfort in desire
You can give yourself to singing
At the expense of the song
And now when I go home
I never stay too long
Fire dancer, where did you come from
And where is it that you go when the morning comes?”
John told the story behind “Fire Dancer” when he stopped by for an episode of Whiskey Riff Raff recently.
I’ll let John explain:
“I was hanging out after a festival one time a number of years ago, kinda drinking and partying and everything, and came across this traveling group of fire spinners and fire performers. And they were kind of hanging out at their camp and invited me and a buddy to sit down and pass the bottle around with them.
And they ended up passing me a pipe of – I didn’t realize it at the time because this guy said, you know, ‘Would you like some medicine?’
I said sure. I thought it was just weed, you know?
So I hit it a couple times and then just like, went out. Just fell back in the grass.
It turns out it was DMT and that was my first experience with that. And I was out for maybe 5 or 10 minutes but oh man, it was such a wild experience. And I knew as soon as I woke back up I knew what it was.
So that was sort of about that experience. I never knew any of their names and they never knew anything.”
If that’s not some badass inspiration, I don’t know what is. And it sure beats the hell out of the cookie cutter shit on the radio these days.
I can already tell that this whole album is going to be one of my favorites of the year thanks to John’s incredible songwriting and storytelling. I mean, isn’t that what country music’s all about?
So check out “Fire Dancer,” along with the rest of Depreciated. Because I know you’re going to like it.
And if you missed John’s appearance on Whiskey Riff Raff, you can watch the whole conversation here:
